Anthony W. Ulwick

The innovation and the impact

Knowing where to focus its efforts was the key to Hussmann’s success. The team went through the eight underserved outcomes, developed engineering specifications for each and a new portfolio of LED lights, and then began systematically devising low-cost features that would dramatically improve customer satisfaction on each outcome.

Rohrer reports, “We used ODI to tweak an existing design and didn’t have to redesign the whole thing. We looked at it from the ODI perspective of the job of illuminating products. What are the problem areas? What are the focus areas?

Then we grouped the opportunities into common themes
that we had to address to win the market. Uniform illumination, level of brightness, and energy efficiency were key things. We focused on them and developed solutions.”

Hussmann created an innovative line of LED products— the EcoShine LED Lighting System—and focused its value proposition on satisfying the eight underserved outcomes in the merchandising of perishable food products. The EcoShine system matched competitors on certain outcomes for LEDs, such as energy efficiency and long life, but it was a breakthrough innovation because it added value on several new merchandising outcomes that competitors had overlooked. Hussmann advertises feature comparisons between the EcoShine line and its competitors on these

specific outcomes. EcoShine boasts superior uniform horizontal and vertical lighting within a display case, reduced glare, and truer product colors (because the lighting is optimized for the display of meat, dairy, and produce).
The product has been a hit in the market. “In only one year, we’ve gone from a fraction of a digit to double digits in market share in North America,” Bhargava notes. Backed by a strong sales commercialization effort, the product received favorable press coverage in industry publications such as Supermarket News, generated favorable buzz as a “home run” at trade shows, and created excitement among utility companies, who are providing incentives for customers to adopt this energy- efficient system.

In addition to generating immediate revenue growth (previously measured in thousands of dollars and now measured in tens of millions, according to Rohrer and Bhargava), the ODI process resulted in three other important benefits for Hussmann.

1.